190221 BIA MINTillsonburg Business Improvement Area
Board Meeting – Minutes for Thursday, February 21st, 2019
7:30 am – Carriage Hall – 25 Brock Street West, Tillsonburg
1. CALL TO ORDER
a. The meeting was called to order at 7:32 am by the Board Chair
In attendance: C. Tomico, D. Gilvesy, C. Pepper, M. Rosehart, D. Rasokas, M. Tedesco, M.
Renaud, K. Slattery, C. Pepper Regrets: W. Cameron, J. Scott
2. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA –
Moved by GILVESY, Seconded by RASOKAS – “Carried”
3. ADOPTION OF THE MINUTES – Minutes from the meeting of December 18th, 2018;
Moved by RASOKAS, Seconded by GILVESY – “Carried”
4. TREASURER’S REPORT: There was a brief presentation by D. Rasokas highlighting the
finances for the month of January. There were no funds received from the town for any BIA
related income. The only major expense in January was the ED contract pay statement.
The Treasurer indicated that there were still excess funds in the chequing account that are
not earning interest. The Treasurer then suggested that excess funds should be moved into
the savings account. To this end, the following resolution was put onto the floor:
Motion: That all but $50,000 of our cash be moved to a High Interest Savings account
at First Ontario Credit Union until the funds are needed.
Moved by: Rasokas, Seconded by Rosehart – “carried”
5. Judi Misener of the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society delivered a presentation to the Board on
the 2019 four-season urn program. There were no questions posed or concerns raised.
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6. Executive Director’s report:
a. The ED gave a verbal report on the Downtown London BIA governance issues and
member discontentment.
b. The ED reviewed the importance of following the Municipal Act with respect to the
BIA meeting protocols. The ED distributed the Ontario Ombudsman investigative
report to the Owen Sound BIA dated October 2nd, 2018.
c. The ED attended meetings with Turtlefest, MOU with Town, FIP committee meeting
with the Town, meetings with several BIA members, two meetings with First Ontario
Credit Union and meetings with the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce.
d. The ED has published updated full-year meeting calendars for each of the full board
and the promotions sub-committee.
e. The ED met with the principles of 21, 25, 27 Brock Street concerning the newly
created darkness created by the removal of the three light heads on Brock Street
East. The ED also spoke with the Manager of Long & McQuade, KTN Taxi and
Carriage Hall regarding this concern. A resolution was put on the floor as follows:
Motion: And resolved that the BIA Board of Management asks the Town of
Tillsonburg to place a moratorium on the removal of the 6 light poles on Brock
Street East and West pending a review and engagement with the concerned
parties and further that an action plan is put into place to address said concerns.
Moved by: TEDESCO, Seconded by: ROSEHART – “CARRIED”
7. Committee Reports:
a. Beautifications: The ED did cover off that there were conversations held between the
Tillsonburg Horticultural Society and the BIA. The ED had also undertaken
preliminary design work on new banners for the south vista entrance to the BIA zone
from Tillson Avenue/Simcoe Street intersection. The ED distributed the proposed
“Rear Façade Checklist” as requested by the CBO, Town of Tillsonburg. Board
members are to review and send comment to the ED who will in turn summarize and
e-mail the town’s CBO. The ED led a discussion about the proposed drawing of 21,
25, 27 Brock Street East façade drawing.
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b. Communications: K. Slattery presented a report on her digital marketing progress
including a demonstration of the current state of all social media sites. The EMC
noted increases in visits to all digital platforms.
c. Promotions: The committee provided a copy of the full-year promotional calendar
with proposed activities and dates. Some of the information regarding specifics of
dates, times and activities is to follow. The ED spoke about the marquee events
beyond Turtlefest in 2019 to include an all-day block party on Canada Day in
conjunction with The Station Arts Centre, the Christmas Crawl/Holi-Dazzle in early
December and the New Year’s Eve Block Party event on December 31st, 2019. The
ED suggested that board members can provide feedback on the promotional
calendar by e-mail. The ED also spoke about having BIA B2B social events for
people to get to know each other.
8. OTHER BUSINESS:
a. The ED discussed efforts to “fix” the currently inoperative downtown WiFi system.
b. The ED presented the board with a verbal report about the sidewalk sinking at 21
Brock Street East – the follow-up is for the ED to write a letter of support to the town
regarding the property-owner’s concerns.
9. NEW BUSINESS:
a. C. Pepper raised a point about a follow-up to the 2019 Turtlefest event and the
request from the Turtlefest committee regarding an increase in funding from the BIA.
After a group discussion, it was decided to defer this request to the Promotions
Committee that any funding to be provided to Turtlefest is to come from the
promotions budget . The board also discussed the additional supports to the
Turtlefest committee as well as more clearly defining the EMC’s role. The ED will
attend the full Turtlefest committee meetings effective immediately. The next
Turtlefest Board Meeting is March 8th at the Tillsonburg Town Centre. The board
also clarified that the role of the EMC will be to exclusively work on the Block Party
portion of Turtlefest – the ED, EMC and C. Pepper will meet to discuss further.
b. There was a suggestion made about painting “no bicycle” markings on the sidewalks
in the downtown core to prevent cyclist/pedestrian collisions. The ED will contact the
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town for next steps. The ED will meet with the Chair of the Tillsonburg Police
Services Board as a follow-up to smoking issues in front of the TTC, bicycle
markings on sidewalks and the proposed parking changes to Broadway.
ROUNDTABLE:
There were no roundtable points made.
10. NEXT MEETING – March 21st, 2019 – Carriage Hall, 7:00 am breakfast, 7:30 am meeting
11. MOTION TO ADJOURN – 9:43 AM – M. ROSEHART
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